Kenya week 1- May 27, 2006
Oyaore (good morning)!
This will be my first email from Kenya, and I can't believe I've only been here 3 days. This place is amazingly inspiring, beautiful and heart breaking at the same time and I don't know where to begin....
I'll start with the village. Lwala, the village I'm living in, is a lot smaller and more rural than I was anticipating (there are chickens and cows wandering around outside our door), but I'm getting to know the people of the village very well and they already call me by my African nicknames, Atoti and Buga. Also, my hair has already been braided and played with by more Lwalan children than I can count. There is no electricity (no light at night minus a few oil lamps, no refrigerator) and no running water. I can only drink bottled water... the rest of the village drinks rainwater. The water from the well is too dirty to drink, but still manages to get clothes clean! I am staying in the home of the Ochiengs, a well-respected and highly educated family in the village, whom I have grown incredibly fond of and close to in just 3 days. I have my own room (it's a pale yellow with a bright blue door, a window that looks out onto endless green hills and a blue mosquito net, which i love sleeping under!) and we eat in the kitchen/living room that is outside my door. The homes are made of mud and most are only one room (our house is 4 rooms, 3 of which are small bedrooms). Most homes have straw roofs and a few have glass windows. The women of the village are always sitting outside their huts on straw mats with their gorgeous babies strapped on their backs. One of my favorite things to do is sit with them and play with their kids- most families have 5-6 children under the age of 13. The Ocheing’ homestead consists of 4 huts; one is the kitchen (all stone on the inside with a fire pit and a few logs to sit on), one is Milton's hut (while he's in med school his 21 year old sister sleeps there and two 13 year old girls, Olga and Dada), one is Omondi's hut (the eldest brother), and the main house (where I sleep, along with other guests and Fred- the second youngest brother). The mother and father of the family passed away of AIDS very recently- the mother in 2004 and the father in 2005. They managed to take out loans before their deaths to educate their children- now their 2 oldest sons are in medical school in the US, Flo (21) will be attending nursing school in the US, Grace (17) is in boarding school in the US and Solomon (11) is in Kenyan boarding school.
Quick run down of the past few days...
- the first day I got here, Fred took me to a very sick woman in the village who was vomiting and weak. I wish so badly I could have made her better. The clinic we're building isn't running yet, so there was nothing we could do except massage her back/ feet and keep her company. This would never happen in the US. Later that night, before they'd eaten anything for dinner, the Ocheing’ brothers carried her two hours (they walked in the dark) to the nearest healthcare facility.
-the first night I helped a 7th grader with his math homework after dinner. Harrison, who you'll hear about many times, has the biggest smile and most adorable dimples i've ever seen. he's my buddy and we hang out all the time! He's so smart- he had to remind me how to do square roots by hand. We did math for 2 hours, by light of a single kerosene lamp- there is no electricity.
- I watched the boys play "football" (American soccer) at the local school and was soon surrounded by about 20 curious children. Before I knew it they were sitting with me in a circle singing songs and playing games. I taught them the song "head, shoulders, knees and toes." Most of the children were wearing clothes with holes in them, but seem so happy, so resilient and are obsessed with my camera and counting 1-10 in English. some of them had big bellies- the kind you see in mal-nourished children, but all of the kids have huge smiles and infectious laughs
- every single person in the village greets me and shakes my hand when they see me. it takes forever to get places and i hear "erokamano, erokamano" (thank you, thank you) all the time. they are so grateful for someone to be here helping the village.
- Flo, the 21 year old, is my new best friend and we hang out all day. I helped her do laundry (go fetch water from the well, carry it to the house, wash the clothes by hand in a basin, hang the clothes on a line to dry). She's great- such a character- and the first night i was there we ate a chicken that she actually killed, de-feathered, and cooked. it took 4 hours to prepare. Flo speaks fluent English and we are constantly laughing together- she has the greatest sense of humor and she cracks me up.
We're getting started on the health surveys on Wednesday... today we bough all the supplies we need with money that KD donated.
Ok this is getting long and I have to walk an hour and a half back to Lwala now before it gets dark, but I love it here. I don't have a phone yet but am working on it.
Take care!
Oriti (goodbye)!
Love,
Abbie
This will be my first email from Kenya, and I can't believe I've only been here 3 days. This place is amazingly inspiring, beautiful and heart breaking at the same time and I don't know where to begin....
I'll start with the village. Lwala, the village I'm living in, is a lot smaller and more rural than I was anticipating (there are chickens and cows wandering around outside our door), but I'm getting to know the people of the village very well and they already call me by my African nicknames, Atoti and Buga. Also, my hair has already been braided and played with by more Lwalan children than I can count. There is no electricity (no light at night minus a few oil lamps, no refrigerator) and no running water. I can only drink bottled water... the rest of the village drinks rainwater. The water from the well is too dirty to drink, but still manages to get clothes clean! I am staying in the home of the Ochiengs, a well-respected and highly educated family in the village, whom I have grown incredibly fond of and close to in just 3 days. I have my own room (it's a pale yellow with a bright blue door, a window that looks out onto endless green hills and a blue mosquito net, which i love sleeping under!) and we eat in the kitchen/living room that is outside my door. The homes are made of mud and most are only one room (our house is 4 rooms, 3 of which are small bedrooms). Most homes have straw roofs and a few have glass windows. The women of the village are always sitting outside their huts on straw mats with their gorgeous babies strapped on their backs. One of my favorite things to do is sit with them and play with their kids- most families have 5-6 children under the age of 13. The Ocheing’ homestead consists of 4 huts; one is the kitchen (all stone on the inside with a fire pit and a few logs to sit on), one is Milton's hut (while he's in med school his 21 year old sister sleeps there and two 13 year old girls, Olga and Dada), one is Omondi's hut (the eldest brother), and the main house (where I sleep, along with other guests and Fred- the second youngest brother). The mother and father of the family passed away of AIDS very recently- the mother in 2004 and the father in 2005. They managed to take out loans before their deaths to educate their children- now their 2 oldest sons are in medical school in the US, Flo (21) will be attending nursing school in the US, Grace (17) is in boarding school in the US and Solomon (11) is in Kenyan boarding school.
Quick run down of the past few days...
- the first day I got here, Fred took me to a very sick woman in the village who was vomiting and weak. I wish so badly I could have made her better. The clinic we're building isn't running yet, so there was nothing we could do except massage her back/ feet and keep her company. This would never happen in the US. Later that night, before they'd eaten anything for dinner, the Ocheing’ brothers carried her two hours (they walked in the dark) to the nearest healthcare facility.
-the first night I helped a 7th grader with his math homework after dinner. Harrison, who you'll hear about many times, has the biggest smile and most adorable dimples i've ever seen. he's my buddy and we hang out all the time! He's so smart- he had to remind me how to do square roots by hand. We did math for 2 hours, by light of a single kerosene lamp- there is no electricity.
- I watched the boys play "football" (American soccer) at the local school and was soon surrounded by about 20 curious children. Before I knew it they were sitting with me in a circle singing songs and playing games. I taught them the song "head, shoulders, knees and toes." Most of the children were wearing clothes with holes in them, but seem so happy, so resilient and are obsessed with my camera and counting 1-10 in English. some of them had big bellies- the kind you see in mal-nourished children, but all of the kids have huge smiles and infectious laughs
- every single person in the village greets me and shakes my hand when they see me. it takes forever to get places and i hear "erokamano, erokamano" (thank you, thank you) all the time. they are so grateful for someone to be here helping the village.
- Flo, the 21 year old, is my new best friend and we hang out all day. I helped her do laundry (go fetch water from the well, carry it to the house, wash the clothes by hand in a basin, hang the clothes on a line to dry). She's great- such a character- and the first night i was there we ate a chicken that she actually killed, de-feathered, and cooked. it took 4 hours to prepare. Flo speaks fluent English and we are constantly laughing together- she has the greatest sense of humor and she cracks me up.
We're getting started on the health surveys on Wednesday... today we bough all the supplies we need with money that KD donated.
Ok this is getting long and I have to walk an hour and a half back to Lwala now before it gets dark, but I love it here. I don't have a phone yet but am working on it.
Take care!
Oriti (goodbye)!
Love,
Abbie
posted by abbie at 11:04 AM
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